Anna Netrebko will perform in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, to run at the Metropolitan Opera, December 3, 2009 – January 2, 2010.

The cast has already been announced:

Joseph Calleja (title role),
David Asch (La Harpe),
Ekaterina Gubanova (Giulietta),
Alan Held (Four Villains),
Kathleen Kim (Olympia),
Kate Lindsey (Nicklausse/The Muse),
Anna Netrebko (Antonia),
Alan Oke (Four Servants),
Dean Peterson (Luther/Crespel),
Rodell Rosel (Nathanaël),
Mark Schowalter (Spalanzani/Schlémil),
Michael Todd Simpson (Hermann),
Wendy White (Antonia’s Mother).

The matinee performance on December 19 will be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

More information at www.metopera.org.

The opera review La traviata: Ecstasy greets a rising star by Rupert Christiansen comes from the Telegraph.co.uk, 16 Jan 2008.

Her Violetta was boldly and warmly sung, with a whole-heartedness that distinguishes her from the more costive Angela Gheorghiu (whose voice is more purely beautiful).

The curtain call said it all. Others would emerge looking drained, distrait and lost in the tragedy of the role, but Netrebko bounced out all smiles and waves, looking ready to start all over again.

The full article here.

Listen to the “Parigi o Cara” duet Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann from Verdi’s La Traviata at The Royal Opera House:

Charles McGrath is the author of A New Kind of Diva, published by The New York Times on December 2, 2007. Anna was 36.

“Her “Traviata” at Salzburg two years ago was such a hot ticket that scalpers were reportedly charging $7,000 a seat, and her records regularly top the charts in Europe. In the summer of 2006 she was part of a concert in Berlin that filled a stadium.”

“In August, when I had lunch with her in Vienna, where she also has an apartment, she turned up wearing purple pumps (which matched her eye shadow), a bright orange duster and the shortest miniskirt I’ve seen anywhere except on Carnaby Street in 1969.”

Read the article here.

Article written by Robert Thicknesse for Times Online was published on June 10, 2005: Domestos goddess. Anna Netrebko went from mopping the floors at the Maryinsky Theatre to starring in it.

Some excerpts from the article:

“Then she won the Glinka singing competition, auditioned for the part of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro and got the rather bigger part of Susanna. That was in 1994, at an age when most British singers are barely out of nappies.”

“Last year I got a big depression, I wanted to give up singing, nothing was making me happy.”

“In real life she’s taller than she seemed on that stage — a testimony to how vulnerably well she played the part — and I remember vividly the combination of stage presence and startlingly large, beautiful, rounded voice coming out.”

“….you can’t sing after dancing all night. I’m getting old! And I can’t afford cracked notes at Covent Garden.”

To read the full article, click here.

• • January 18, 2010
  • Royal Festival Hall, LondonConcert with Dimitri Hvorostovsky
• • February 20, 24, & 27, 2010
    March 2, 6, 10, 13, 17, & 20, 2010
  • Metropolitan Opera, New YorkLa Bohème / Mimi
• • March 29, 2010
  • Berlin State OperaRecital with Daniel Barenboim
• • April 5 & 8, 2010
  • Vienna State OperaLa Bohème / Mimi
• • April 19, 22, & 25, 2010
  • Vienna State OperaI Puritani / Elvira
• • May 3, 6, 9, 12, & 15, 2010
  • Vienna State OperaCarmen / Micaela
• • May 18 & 21, 2010
  • Vienna State OperaManon / title role
• • June 22, 25, & 28, 2010
    July 1, 4, 7, & 10, 2010
  • Royal Opera House, Covent GardenManon / title role